Mario Aguilar

Just a short while after Craigslist effectively killed PadMapper by asserting copyright over its listing data, Craigslist appears to be in the process of launching a nearly identical service. Certain Craigslist real estate listings are now showing embedded maps from OpenStreetMap. Finally!

Talking Points Memo reports that embedded maps have been observed in San Francisco and Portland. Indeed, we were able to find the above San Francisco listing with a map in less than a minute. It appears that all the system needs to insert a map is an address. Easy, just the way it should be.

We reached out to Craigslist for comment on where the service might show up next and if it would be expanded to a more comprehensive map like what PadMapper offers. One interesting detail to note is that though Craigslist links to Google Maps and Yahoo Maps, it's using a free, open source alternative for its actual listings.

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Does this mean no more jumping to an outside service to see where your maybe next apartment is located? It's too early to know for sure. This could be just an experiment, but it sure is nice to see that this crucial piece of information right there the listings where it belongs. [TPM]